Her

#125 at the time of writing.

Way back when I blogged about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I said that if I had to choose a personal top 250 films, it would be full of films like that one. Except there aren't any.

Now there's one.

I enjoyed Her possibly more than any film since Eternal Sunshine (which is my favourite film of all time). I love any film that takes a clever conceit and explores its consequences as far as possible - and then stretches it even further, until your imagination is blown. This film does that wonderfully, with plenty of heart and humour.

Eternal Sunshine was written by my #1 screenwriter (with the possible exception of Terry Rossio), Charlie Kaufman - and two other films written by him (Being John Malkovich and Adaptation) were directed by Spike Jonze, who wrote and directed Her. So perhaps it's not surprising that this film reminded me of Eternal Sunshine; the two men apparently share a certain kind of quirky creative sensibility that massively appeals to me.

This near-future sci-fi romance tells of a heartbroken and lonely man (played by Joaquin Pheonix) who falls in love with an artificially intelligent operating system. Their relationship evolves through highs and lows, and meanwhile the depth and complexity of the AI's consciousness evolves (in a charmingly flawed way, echoing the fallibility of its human creators), and simultaneously society's attitude towards this new kind of intelligence evolves. These three threads build and intertwine slowly and subtly without ever taking the focus away from those intimate human moments that define love.

To top it all off, this film has one of the most intense and endearing 100% platonic male/female relationships that I've seen in movies (the main character and his friend played by Amy Adams).

The voice of the AI was originally Samantha Morton's. She was present on the set with Joaquin Phoenix every day. After the filming wrapped and Spike Jonze started editing the movie, he felt like something was not right. With Morton's blessing, he decided to recast the role and Scarlett Johansson was brought and replaced Morton, re-recording all the dialogue.

Hey Academy, are you listening? Never mind Gravity, pay no more than lip service to 12 Years A Slave, and give this film some love. (Yah, they won't listen…)

12 Years a Slave

#90 at the time of writing.

This is the only slightly embellished true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man from New York who was abducted and sold into slavery in the mid-19th century American deep south. Director Steve McQueen's wife noted that there are more films about Roman slave Spartacus than about the far more relevant and immediate Atlantic slave trade.

It's interesting that it took a British-helmed film to really get under the skin of what it was like to be a slave in America - an unsentimental and unflinching portrait. There's all the brutality and abuse of Django Unchained (which I saw last year), but with none of the ridiculousness.

I was perhaps a little reluctant to go and see this, which reinforces my suspicion that my favourite reason to watch a film is escapism. This is the opposite of escapism. I'm not in a rush to watch Steve McQueen's critically acclaimed previous films Hunger and Shame.